8/16 Season Four Episode Three: Unfinished Business-Scarecrow and Mrs King

Lee and Amanda rush down the IFF corridor. LOL they totally look like they are colluding about something! Amanda: What did you just do?[I thought they had a plan – did she seriously not know what he was doing? what was the instruction – distract him while I do something?! in the drug dispensary?! Okay okay, maybe he didn’t tell her because he didn’t want her to object. Better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission and all that!]Lee: Swiped a vial of promazepam.[LOL Lee is so hyped, I suspect he may have already taken some I looked to see if it’s for real. There’s a drug called Bromazepam.. seems that was maybe what they made this made up drug sound like? Or anyone find this drug? If it’s made up, I bet it’s all the rage on made up Ile De Marine!]
Amanda reacts to hearing what drug he’s stolen..
Gah!Amanda: Are you crazy?
[Love how Lee just grins unfazed by Amanda’s reaction!]…That stuff’s experimental; it’s got unpredictable side-effects…[I love the delivery here.. short, snappy and super fast – I think it’s got KJ written all over it.. great directing & acting KJ! ]
(they round the corner and arrive at the elevator) …and it can turn your brain inside out like a wet paper bag.[LOL Lee is all playful and excited here!]
[LOL what an awesome description! and love how Amanda knows all about this experimental drug! that’s quite some training she’s been undertaking! Just a short time ago, she didn’t know about Huck Finns err Mickey Finns!]Lee: That’s why I need it.Amanda: It’s controlled.Lee: I’ve been trained to use it.[Umm how can you be trained to use an experimental drug with unpredictable side-effects? Amanda was wrong – Lee is superman!! ]
[LOL Amanda’s all worked up, and now Lee is all calm. haaaa.. she’s fighting a losing battle here. Watching them fight is fun ]Amanda: You stole it.Lee: You helped me. [rofl!]Amanda: Ohhhh! An unpleasant little detail!![Awesome fast delivery here – hilarious!!! If smk had kept this up, I’m sure there would have been a season five!]Lee: Who’s gonna know?Billy comes round the corner as Amanda responds: That’s not the point. Billy yells interrupting them: Hold it right there.Lee and Amanda are startled..
And try to collect themselves!Amanda: Yes, Sir.Billy: What were you doing at the dispensary?
Ummmm…. Amanda: Headache……I have a horrible headache, Sir, and I needed an aspirin.[Has Amanda ever outright lied to Billy before?]Lee: Oh yeah, she’s- yeah, a real lollapalooza.Amanda: Oohh.Billy: Well, you’re not by yourself. The talk on the street is that there’s a plot to assassinate Sinclair…

[Don’t worry Billy, this is smk – and whatever Lee and Amanda are doing is likely to be coincidentally linked to it anyway!] …Treasury’s getting antsy because they don’t like the idea of him staying at the Blackthorne estate… [Treasury? why would Treasury care? wouldn’t this be more of a State Department thing?
Hmmm.. Blackthorne.. Blackthorne.. the name sounds familiar.. Blackthorne.. Oh yeah, the guy that wrote that report that we saw in the CIA file of Lee’s mother:
– ahem. I’ve concluded this was never suppose to be seen! But honestly, even without taking the still image – I could see the Source was Joseph Blackthorne! err AKA Thomas Blackthorne??!!! Aie.. now I have a real lollapalooza!!! ] …So, I’m asking everybody, keep an ear to the ground.Amanda: Absolutely, Sir.Lee: We’ll do it. [At least, Amanda will try with that awful awful headache of hers ]Billy: Oh. An agent from Langley, McCrary’s the name, keeps calling you…
…Says he has to see you ASAP. [Thanks secretary Billy! ]Lee: Hmmm.Billy: Could you pick your messages up more than once a week?Amanda: Yes, Sir.Lee: Ja, Billy.Amanda: I’ll remind him, Sir.Lee: Yeah, she’ll remind me.Amanda: No problem.Lee: Come on.(The elevator arrives..
They enter moving all those clothes. lol)
[Interesting that McCrary is CIA. Where the files came from.. I wonder if that was McCrary on the phone to Lee at the start of the episode, Lee requested the files, and then was putting off talking to McCrary until he had looked them over maybe? Who knows.. and at this point, I’m not sure I’m ever going to get answers..]

Lee and Amanda are next seen meeting McCrary – I guess at Langley..Lee: What have you got for me? [Umm hello! He treats this McCrary rough!]McCrary: You’re not gonna believe this one.(McCrary hands Lee an envelope.. Lee opens it..]Lee: Yeah, this is from my father’s file.McCrary: I’d like to call your attention to the name at the top of the page; the source.
We see a close up on the document…
Learjet has transcribed it for us (thanks Learjet!]
File no: 196-46AT
FIELD REPORT
Subject: STETSON, MATTHEW DAVIS, MAJOR U.S. ARMY – M.I.D
Address: 355 Lincolndale road
Washington, D. C.
Case Officer: H.W. Alward I.D. no: RF-49885
Source: THOMAS BLACKTHORNE
Army July 1939, Baltimore, Maryland. Father deceased,
mother retired, one brother U.S.A.F assigned to
Berlin. Assigned to Military Intelligence Division.
London April 1941 as part of covert presence by
….. force. Duties included contact with
….sympathizers, extensive intelligence
…frequent contact with foreign
….Major Rhyne. M…
….wealth Of….Lee: Thomas Blackthorne?[Lee is completely stunned! How could he have read his mother’s file at the start of this episode and not noticed the source? Why.. he even hassled this McCrary dude to find out who the source is – when he had that information all along! Okay okay, it originally said Joseph Blackthorne and then here they’ve changed it.. Aiee!!!! Okay.. Maybe Lee wanted to know who was the source of his dad’s file? Maybe Joseph Blackthorne was the source for his mother’s report and Thomas Blackthorne (coincidence!!) was the source of his father’s?!!! tee hee.. yeah no that just doesn’t work. Yep.. this is one of those moments:
Phew.. At least Lee hasn’t been blasted back into his 80’s white polyester jacket again!! Okay okay this is a massive dogs breakfast.. so we may as well have some fun with it! ]
Focus back in the smk present Iwsod!

Lee can’t believe it’s Thomas Blackthorne.. the guy Billy was literally talking about 2 seconds ago! Well well..McCrary: Thomas Blackthorne, the patron saint of Ile de Marin…
[Whoa!!! My brain is being turned inside out like a wet paper bag!!!]…Well, are we square?Lee: Yeah, thanks.(They shake hands on it)McCrary: Sure.(McCrary leaves them to it.)Lee: Thomas Blackthorne?
[I’m with you Lee.. I’m still trying to get my head around this massive clunker! ahh smk ]Lee: Why would he want to accuse my parents of treason?[Hmm.. you were just blackmailing McCrary – is that a clue?!
We don’t know Lee!!! Maybe it’s because they were committing treason? Ummm he seems to be assuming here it was a false accusation? I thought he didn’t know? Maybe deep down he is wanting to believe they are goodies. Fair enough too!]

So it looks like McCrary got Lee a non-redacted version of the same report – and this was the big reveal.. the source name in the first scene should have been redacted. I’m just going to pretend it was!!! 🙂

We learned Lee has an uncle in the USAF – stationed in Berlin.. hmm interesting!! in A relative situation – err the general was the brother of Lee’s mother? maybe it was supposed to be his brother all along and he misspoke. maybe I can pretend he said he was the brother of the dad?! ]

LOL if you’ve all managed to look away from the flashing time warp… I’d suggest you all jump to the left, and then step to the right. With your hands on your hips, bring your knees in tight… and then.. share your thoughts on this part of the episode if you like!!!!

42 responses to “8/16 Season Four Episode Three: Unfinished Business-Scarecrow and Mrs King”

Yup…this scene just proves my comment last post. Amanda instantly knows all about an experimental Agency drug – she’s come a long way from the Huck Finn/Mickey Finn days. Why oh why did KJ decide to do those goofy hand motions?

The only sorta somewhat half-baked explanation I can come up with is that she is keeping up the naïve housewife act so that she stays invisible at the Agency. People there would probably start treating her differently if they thought she growing professionally by leaps and bounds. Billy, Francine, and Leatherneck are apparently the only ones in the know, although I’m sure there are others I’m forgetting.

At least we get the “comedy gold” as commented earlier with this walking argument to the elevator interrupted by Billy. That is a great scene! It’s things like this that make S4 what it is – lowest lows but highest highs.

I remembered that my mother in law took a drug called “…mazepam” so I looked it up. Its a hypnotic drug for insomnia and it has lots of odd side effects. I wonder if back in the 80’s they were developing it?
Restoril (temazepam) is a benzodiazepine sedative hypnotic used to treat insomnia symptoms, such as trouble falling or staying asleep. Restoril is available in generic form. Common side effects of Restoril include:
dizziness
daytime drowsiness (or during hours when you are not normally sleeping)
amnesia or forgetfulness
muscle weakness
loss of balance or coordination
headache
blurred vision
depression
nervousness
excitability
irritability
nausea
vomiting
stomach discomfort
dry mouth
increased thirst, or
numbness
burning
pain, or
tingly feeling

Oh, my goodness… what a ‘nice’ little list of side effects! 😦
I wouldn’t think twice to take them – no, I would at least think three or four times about it!
You have to be quite desperate to take anything like that…

Yup! She was. Lewy Body Dementia that kept her and any care giver from sleeping for the last three months of her life. But It makes me think that it really was being developed in the 80’s and SMK was referring to something that really existed.

Thank you for the warm welcome.
I am really glad that there is SMK on DVD, so I can hear the original voices. And honestly the German translation is really bad.
And so I could also hear how sweet Bruce speaks German.
But enough off tropic, back to Mr. Buffalo Bill.

Ohhh, I love it when Lee says: Who’s gonna know?
This voice, ahhhhh
I think I’ve rewound it 20 times, thank God the times of VHS are over.

I would like to say Hello from Germany and great thanks for this blog.
I enjoy this walk for a very long time and always discover new parts. Besides, it always makes me laugh, very loudly.
You, as well as the others, do a great job.
Thank you very much for the hard work and time you share.

Love this scene and the humour. The writer seems to have written other SMK episodes without much comedy so I can only put this down to the director. It’s like a glorious return to the first two seasons esp S1. I particularly like the way it’s used in this episode, given the angst-ridden and personal nature of the plot. I’m just ignoring the completely bizarre plot-holes (more like plot caverns than holes!!)

After watching this series several times and rewinding on many occasion, you start to notice other things. One day it was bothering me how Billy could possibly know that they came from the dispensary. I kept rewinding and noticed that Billy was in the hallway watching them as they left. He seemed suspicious of them.

Love the whole scene as Lee and Amanda are heading towards the elevator. This is the stuff that reminds me of Hepburn and Grant and how they bantered back and forth so. KJ and BB nailed this. They have such a great dynamic now.

I am at a loss to even attempt to explain the mixed up files of the CIA and the prop department of SMK. (Just had a flashback to the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler–great book). One can only assume that no one would be looking that closely at the files. Couldn’t really zoom in with a VCR and probably didn’t expect that 30 years later someone would be digging deeply into these prop files.

Maybe Lee is wondering why this guy who’s considered a “patron saint” would get involved in this kind of situation. It seems that everyone else thinks he’s so wonderful, and above such drama. Then again, maybe Lee has decided to go with Amanda’s thinking and be more positive about his parents. Easier to think they’ve been falsely accused than assume they were traitors.

Earlier on, Sinclair mentions that this Duclos took off with a lot of money when he left the country and is concerned with getting the money back to the country. Blackthorne was one of the first to recognize Sinclair’s country and maybe there is a plan for some international trade or economy issues. Maybe that’s why the Treasury department is involved.

Iwsod, you mention Lee and Amanda colluding about something. Collusion, that word has taken on epic proportions here lately.

But seriously – surely they had character bibles? How did
this sort of thing slip through constantly?
I’m with you, Janet.

Details are everything. I hate it when I read a book and think, that’s not right, the character was X not Y, or the place name is wrong ! I recently read a series where a character’s name changed from Guinevere to Gwendolyn and I thought why didn’t someone check that !

I would have sacked Continuity in Season 1. So many things could have been tidied up if only someone was paying close attention – like we are.

I think this was a sign of the times. Maybe we’ve become more interested in continuity in the last 30 years. I was more than slightly obsessed with a very long series of girls’ school stories back in the day. They were written between the mid-20s and the 70s. Changes in names/spellings/family details all over the place. Used to drive me crazy. Maybe it just wasn’t valued back then?

A long with what you’re say, our family is listening to the old radio program that the I Love Lucy show came from and in the first season of the radio show the main couple was well to do financially and their last name was Cugot and then the next season their last name was changed to Cooper and they were more of a middle income family.

The prop guys not double checking the characters’ names for things like the files pales in comparison to the fact that the script writers never looked back at any old episodes to check family history. It’s great for fanfiction, but terrible for people like me who like continuity. Lee’s uncle was never assigned a specific family in A Relative Situation, but faced with the “new” information dropped in later episodes about Jennifer being British and having the maiden name Hamilton, I can tell you the fanfic world threw up its collective hands and unilaterally decided Robert was Matt’s half brother from a second marriage.

But seriously – surely they had character bibles? How did this sort of thing slip through constantly?

These walk’n’talk fights are always my favourites – the sheer humour in watching KJ make up for her lack of size compared to BB with sheer motion just cracks me up every time I watch it. And her delivery of the line “Ohhhhh, an unpleasant little detail!” is pure comedy gold.

I can only imagine they had a very tight budget and could not pay enough to retain a qualified continuity person.

“These walk’n’talk fights are always my favourites – the sheer humour in watching KJ make up for her lack of size compared to BB with sheer motion just cracks me up every time I watch it. And her delivery of the line “Ohhhhh, an unpleasant little detail!” is pure comedy gold.”

I agree about the great humor mixed in with their fights. The deep knee bends KJ & BB use as they walk, also gives the scene a choreographed dance rhythm that I appreciate. There’s comedy in Lee exaggerating Amanda’s headache; then, she reciprocates by taking responsibility for Lee’s messages. Billy’s certainly no fool so he has to see through these diversionary tactics, right?

There is also a wonderful element of ‘cahoots’ in the way they immediately stop arguing and stand shoulder to shoulder to defend themselves against Billy. And yes, Billy’s been the boss and a dad long enough to know that they’re up to something but can’t decide what yet since he knows they’re not assigned to anything that would specifically mean trouble for him. Maybe he’s wondering if they were in there sneaking a pregnancy test or something? LOL.

Maybe he’s wondering if they were in there sneaking a pregnancy test or something?

LOL!
But I guess Billy knows his ‘kids’ well enough to know, Amanda isn’t the kind of woman who excepts having an ‘affair’ – especially not with Lee and his (old) reputation… Getting pregnant to ‘capture’ Lee would have been one of her worst ideas ever and wouldn’t have worked anyway. Amanda knows that and so does Billy.
So, Billy knows they are up to SOMETHING but he doesn’t know WHAT it is.

you know, I’m not sure Billy knows they are a romantic item now.. Same with Francine – those looks in the hallway at the end of ATWAS were so vague – I’m not sure what they were thinking at finding the door locked! I look forward to keeping a look out for clues in future scenes/eps!

So, Billy knows they are up to SOMETHING but he doesn’t know WHAT it is.

I love the way they can argue like that. Amanda just broke into Lee’s house to tell him that she would always be by his side and now she is arguing with him and objecting vehemently to his plan. I love it that they can still do this and still support each other and then stand almost nestled in with each other when caught. Its the perfect union of two very individualized people. Awesome!!!

Well said. They have such a rock solid trust in each other by now and know their relationship withstands honest debate … like checks and balances for each other so neither swings too far from the truth. In fact, it even makes them stronger.

These walk’n’talk fights are always my favourites – the sheer humour in watching KJ make up for her lack of size compared to BB with sheer motion just cracks me up every time I watch it. And her delivery of the line “Ohhhhh, an unpleasant little detail!” is pure comedy gold.

Exactly!!! SMK has it’s flaws.. but it also is full of comedy gold! These types of scenes are top shelf smk! 🙂

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